Tag: African

Its about that time again! Yes, it is Black History Month. The time for e-militants and YouTube Scholars to go into overdrive. There are only 28 days of this, so its best to take advantage of it. Obviously, I am joking. On this site, we celebrate Black History year round. But, since folks seem to pay attention more at this time, it would be a mistake to not focus on it. While you are here, I want to inform you about another great site where you can find out about Black history. BlackPast is host to a wealth of knowledge...

Blatant anti-Black sentiment is publicly frowned upon, but shows itself in many subtle ways. Here, we have a sample of some of the thinking that is out there about African-Americans who have the audacity to have non-traditional names. Above, we have the shining example of a hiring manager who seems to have an unwarranted contempt for names that are outside of his comfort zone. Notice how, he projects his feelings upon his employees, taking care to save them from having to deal with the potential of a “hostile environment” because of a potential employees name. How magnanimous of him. The...

Good morning everyone. For those who may not know, the African-American Day Parade is today. The parade is always the third Sunday in September, and has been an event since 1968. In talking with people a few days before, some have the view that the parade is not what it could be. As a Harlem resident, I have noticed a shrinking of the parade route, and a reduction in the time and size of the crowd over the years. While there are numerous reasons that this is the case, I want to break it down into what factors play into...

Today is the last day of Black History Month 2013, and it ended with a plethora of events in Harlem. One of them was the panel discussion on the concept of “post-Blackness” held. This panel was the second event of the year for the Phoenix Forum, and it went extremely well. It was a pleasure to serve as moderator for the event. Our featured panelists were Nicholle LaVann, an award winning filmmaker, Ali McBride, an activist and motivational speaker, and scholar Guesnerth Perea. This was a lively discussion, and many things came up. From definitions of African American, to media...

2013 is a year of many anniversaries in Black history, but not all events are spoken of equally. With so much focus on Harlem at the current moment, now is a great time to revisit a time tumult in the history of the neighborhood. This year marks the 70th anniversary of 1943 Harlem riots. At the time derided as mere “race riots” this uprising in Harlem had at its core the issue of police violence in the community. The spark for the riot was the arrest and rough treatment of a Harlem woman, Marjorie Polite. In the summer of 1943,...